Take a sip: the perfect China for a pot of tea

After completing a journalism degree at the University of the Sunshine Coast, I joined the Sunshine Coast Daily in 2010. As the Daily’s police reporter, the round is unprectible, diverse and challenging, but also exciting and is a dream position for me. In between heading to emergency incidents, I love getting the chance to write about amateur and professional theatre and the arts. I’ve also worked in various community roles at the Caboolture News, Buderim Chronicle and Caloundra Weekly. Having...

It's the familiar sounds of someone making a warm cup of tea that makes you want to sit down and take it easy for a while.

But as I discovered on a recent trip to China, there's much more to the humble cup of tea that we've come to take for granted as we haphazardly dunk a teabag and tap our teaspoon on the edge of the mug.

It's a warm 30C in Guilin in southern China, and the humidity is high.

We step out of the mini-bus and into the heat. We amble past grey concrete walls and crumbling structures around us in the quiet street.

What waits for us beyond the drab exterior of our surroundings is a lush-green tea plantation: known as the Guilin Tea Research Institute.

Rows and rows of bushes line the 17ha organic plantation.

Each green leaf thrives off the rich soil, which feeds from the mighty jagged limestone mountains.

The ancient mountains rise at sharp angles and envelope the plantation like strong bookends to the green land. Workers in bamboo-woven hats run their fingers over each bush to find and pluck just the right leaf among the 250 different types of tea plants.

It's a tedious but essential process which has allowed the plantation to produce tonnes of tea for centuries.

The Guilin Tea Research Institute was founded in 1965, but it was the epicentre of tea manufacturing in Guangxi province long before that.

It was the royal tea garden in the Ming Dynasty 400 years ago.

More than 90% of tea produced nowadays is set aside for the Chinese government. The remaining tea is sold to the public.

GETTING THERE: CATHAY Pacific flies 11 times a week from Brisbane to Hong Kong and from there connects to daily flights to Guilin with its regional airline Dragonair. Return economy airfares start from $1007 from Brisbane. Visit www.cathaypacific.com.au.

TOURING PACKAGES: WENDY Wu Tours has a range of fully-escorted group tours of China, as well as a selection of itineraries for independent travellers. An example of the latter is the Guilin, Yangshuo and Longji short stay package is priced from $650 per person twin share and includes four nights' accommodation with daily breakfast, private touring with local English-speaking guides, including entrance fees and some meals. Visit www.wendywutours.com.au.

VISAS: A PRE-ARRANGED visa is required to travel to China, which must be obtained from a Chinese Visa application centre. Short visits fall under to Guilin without a visa on the new 72-hour visa-free transit policy; www.travelchinaguide. com/embassy/visa/free-72hour.